It's an acquired chaos

My Family’s Secret Chocolate Pie Recipe

Okay, so it's not really a secret anymore if I share it here, is it? I'm not sure why I've been possessive of this recipe online before, but I've had a few people ask for it and my sister said to share it, so I'm sharing it.

This recipe doesn't seem to make enough for a deep-dish pie, so I always triple the recipe and make two pies. You could always 1.5x the recipe too, or just use a regular pie dish, not a deep dish.

Also, I'm pretty sure the rationale behind just using egg yolks was so you could save the whites for meringue. Nobody in my family likes meringue, so I stopped making it a long time ago. Instead, when I triple the recipe, instead of using 9 egg yolks and tossing 9 egg whites, I just put in 5 whole eggs. Seems to work okay.

My Auntie never wrote this recipe down and was never quite sure how to tell someone else to do it – every time she tried guessing it came out different. She didn't measure, but just knew. Her pies were always perfect. Ours, however, never were. Eventually my sister perfected the proportions. Here it is! But I don't know what it is about the cocoa. I've tried several different kinds (Nestles and Girhardelli) and neither of them work in this recipe. Has to be Hersheys.

Is possible the other chocolates didn’t work because they were Dutch processed? Not that I have anything against Hershey’s, but I WANT this pie and all I have is Ghirardelli’s Dutch processed in my pantry.

I have since wondered if the two bad pies made with other cocoa wasn’t more a result of my being a fairly new cook and less a result of type of cocoa. Still, even while a fairly new cook I could make the pie come out okay with Hersheys.
But Monica has made it with unidentified cocoa and hers came out fine. Who knows what she used? She pours her cocoa in another container, so she didn’t know what kind it was…
But everything Monica touches turns to gold, so you might not want to try that.

Hi!! I was reading the comments about your “My Family’s Secret Chocolate Pie” recipe. You have listed Evaporated Milk as an ingredient. One reader’s comment was that she didn’t have quite 2 cups sweetened condensed milk, so she add 2% milk. Would the recipe work with sweetened condensed milk?

Hi Linda, I’m not sure where that comment with the 2% milk is, but I’ve never made this recipe with anything other than evaporated milk. I won’t mess with what I know works, so if you want to give it a go with sweetened condensed, go for it, but I think that is really different from evaporated milk, so I’d be nervous about it.

I’ve been scared of pie making, but it’s my goal to be able to make pie without stressing about it by next Thanksgiving! Around the time Elizabeth and I decided on chocolate pie for Christmas, you posted a link to this recipe. YUM. Thank you! It turned out great! I’m wondering, though, how long you usually let it set before serving? Ours didn’t quite hold its shape after serving.

Our normal practice is to not pour it into the crust until it’s really thick in the pan. After that, we *usually* let it set overnight and in the fridge. It’s soft, but will hold up okay. My auntie made meringue to go on top, but I never liked that as a kid and still don’t really as an adult, so we opt for whipped cream instead. 🙂